Many animals such as the poison dart frog, the tiger moth, and the black widow spider give predators advanced warning of their unpalatability or danger through aposematic warning signs, while other animals such as the harmless scarlet kingsnake simply mimic the bright colors of the _______ species to keep predators away.A. perniciousB. amicableC. comestibleD. pulchritudinousE. deleteriousF. esculent

The sentence tells you that animals give predators advanced warning of their danger, so you know the bright colors are warning signs. The while trigger changes the direction of the second part of the sentence, which you can see with the mention of the harmless scarlet kingsnake, but then there’s another contrast with the simply mimic phrase.

This brings you back to the animals that are unpalatable or dangerous. You can recycle dangerous for the blank.

Eliminate choice (B) right away, because if the animals are dangerous, they definitely aren’t friendly.

Choice (D) might initially look appealing, but it actually means beautiful. While the animals might be brightly- colored, you’re looking for something that means dangerous, so you can eliminate that answer. You’re left with two sets of synonyms, choices (A) and (E) and choices (C) and (F). The words in the second set, choices (C) and (F), mean edible.

If you missed one of the contrast triggers, you might be tempted to go with that pair, but because you have the two different changes of direction, you can eliminate them. That leaves (A) and (E) as the best answers.
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